Chip Towers asks seven former Georgia starting quarterbacks for their opinions about you know what here. Two themes appear to emerge: one, that Eason’s a work in progress, not because of his talent, but because of his lack of familiarity with the college game and how that might affect his confidence; and two, perhaps a little surprisingly, a show of support for what Greyson Lambert brings to the table.
For example, here’s what David Greene has to say:
“I’m kind of in the camp that I think Greyson is a much better player than what a lot of people give him credit for. I think last year, it was a very vanilla offense, for the most part, at least that’s the way it felt. There’s no question, everybody at the spring game could tell, you’ve got a special talent in Jacob Eason. No question that his up side is tremendous. But one of the great things about playing quarterback is it’s a lot more than athletic ability. Greyson has a season under his belt here in Athens and I imagine the game has slowed down enough for him that he probably feels in control and command at this point. What you really want is consistency. You want to know what to expect when a guy gets on the field. I’m not saying Jacob won’t eventually do that. I actually thought Jacob handled himself extremely well in front of 90-something thousand at the spring game.
“Having said that, I think we’re going to be fine. I think the competition is probably made up more in the media and outside the Butts-Mehre than inside. As long as Greyson does a great job and runs the offense the way the coaches want him to, I see him being the guy. The only way I see Jacob getting into the game early or playing early in the season is if we just stall out and we’re just not generating enough offense. But I thought I saw enough from Greyson just in terms of natural ability last year, if he can get into a rhythm and he and Coach Chaney get into a flow and the team has a good mix between run and pass, the formula works. But heck, who knows, you never know how these things are going to play out. But is Greyson talented enough to do it? He absolutely is.”
I find myself more convinced that the quarterback battle is going to come down to Chaney and Smart weighing on which side of the efficiency vs. explosiveness debate they prefer to land. I don’t think they know yet. But I think they will by the time August is over.
Get The Picture 
I didn’t think Lambert was all that efficient and he was clearly not explosive last year. Sure, he only “threw” 2 picks, but one almost cost us a game (Thanks to Kenneth Towns) and a number of others hit guys in the hands just to fall incomplete. He threw so many checkdowns on 3rd down to get 3 yards for us to punt. We rarely took shots down the field. I don’t know if that was play calling, coaching, execution or a combination of all of the above, but it was hard to watch that offense once the main cog went missing. That didn’t happen the year before when Gurley went out for the suspension and, eventually, injury.
I trust the staff will find the guy who gives us the best chance to win now and to give Eason more reps and the starting job when the team’s goals are gone.
I find it interesting that all of the QBs seem to be lining up behind Lambert and the 10 wins.
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I agree (though it ain’t worth much) that we don’t know if the check downs and what not we’re play calling, execution issues, or just lambert freezing but it’s the crux of the issue, is it not? If lambert can zip the seam route and an aggressive outside shoulder out pattern with authority we’ve got very little to worry about. He just needs to do it during a game…
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I thought I remembered more than a few calls from the coaching staff for Lambert to make decisions more quickly and let the ball go when the play calls for it. That’s certainly one way to make an offense more “vanilla”– not throw the ball and check down all the time.
If Greene thinks “the game has slowed down for him” equates to throwing deep more often to keep the defense stretched, I’m all for it. Otherwise, he’s not nearly quick enough to run a short-passing game (where QB mobility adds an element to be defended).
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“In the arena”, boys, in the arena. I’ll bet none of you reviewed his passes last year and this spring. All that yall have done is run his negative laundry up a flagpole to emulate you-know-who.
Careful that you don’t see Lambert’s good passes beginning after the first one he misses this year.
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Cojones, he looked great at times like for the entire USCe game. He looked absolutely awful at other times. I didn’t need to be in the arena to see the ball he threw on the first play against Missouri that would have been a pick 6 except for the hustle play of the year by Towns. My point is that I trust the coaches to select the right guy and put him in the right position. I also expect the selected QB to execute the offense and lead the team.
That’s why I stated that I didn’t know if it was game planning, coaching, execution or a combination, but there’s no doubt the offense sputtered once #27 was lost for the season. The QB gets typically more heavily gets the credit and the blame just like the coaches. Nothing I wrote was a personal attack on the young man, and I hope if he’s the starter, he goes 15-0 and wins the Heisman, Maxwell, and O’Brien Awards and is the SEC’s player of the year.
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We all want that for any Dawg QB. My point is not to frame everything in a bright light, but to balance the perception by viewing his work. Post his good passes as braggage and then shine light on the entire game production. His entire rating as a QB is dependent upon him “slinging it” in many minds who scuttle everything positive he does as our representative on the field. It’s over the top and benefits no one.
I realize that many negative postings about Greyson are snark and many are just plain trolling by the Senator. I’ve watched many go by for some time and am chiming in now before we begin to get “Boo”s from the stands before he even represents us this year.
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If Georgia goes 15-0 this season CHUBB will win the Heisman. Lambert (or whoever the QB is) might win the O’Brien Award though if that happens.
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I agree. I was responding to Cojones’ comment to me. If Nick stays healthy and Georgia makes it to Atlanta and beyond, we’ll have the school’s 3rd Heisman winner.
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I think you boiled the point down well–efficiency vs explosiveness. The question is whether Chaney can tune the engine well enough to be more effective. If so, then I see Lambert in the cards (certainly will help to have Chubb back close to form). If things sputter, then look for Eason like Eeth said. Its really not that complicated or exiting, despite the fact that the media will bait us all year with this topic (I get it. They want listeners and clicks. Can’t blame em)
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Its not that exciting either…;)
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Another season of Lambert, huh? Excuse me while I stock up on vanilla ice cream, white bread and triscuits.
/sobs
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I doubt it would be an entire season, especially if it is Lambert of last year.
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That’s where my money is at right now. Lambert gets the start for the year, but at some point Eason will get a shot at more than just mop-up/cupcake game time.
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I think that is the line of thought with most UGA fans. If Chaney and Pittman can keep Lambert’s jersey clean, we do know he can pick a part a defense. So who knows, but I think Eason continues to improve in practice and at some point Lambert looks scared, giving Eason the chance to play.
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I am not all that enthralled with Lambert, middle of the pack talent with only a year to go, but UGA fans are over-the-top silly about the crap they dish on Lambert. He may get beaten out his month by Ramsey, wouldn’t be surprised at all, but I put much more of Lambert’s performance in 2015 on Shotty and Chubb’s absence. I trust what the coaches decide later this month and will not blast a guy publicly who is working on our behalf and deserves better than the cheap shots I have seen on here.
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Also agreed, Ramsey seemed to throw INTs because he didn’t do the film study, if Chaney can fix that I think we have a challenger. Granted that is a big IF.
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The fact that Ramsey continues to be one of our QBs can’t be overlooked. If he was no good, I think he would have been shown the road by now. He may just have a tremendous case of stage fright during games. I know of brilliant people who cannot speak and communicate before a crowd.
Needless to say, you and Mac will enjoy your UGA football this year more so than several posters here who are only waiting for Lambert’s first mistake that will confirm all their cheap shots from last year and that continues. Good or bad, he’s on the field for UGA as per Kirby’s statements Monday and if you can’t cheer for him as the best QB playing his heart out for us at that moment, you shouldn’t be spending your time watching the game.
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Greene was the best “game manager” type of QB that Richt had, much more effective than Hutson or Lambert, so are his comments just out of humility? Shockley contradicted himself. He already came out for Eason earlier in the summer. Eric Z. was plugged in very early as a frosh because of the same set of reasons, the two quarterbacks already on campus were just flat out ineffective, so his political comments don’t hold much water. The bottom line is that Lambert did not look any different at G Day than he did in 2015. Ramsey looked a tad bit improved, but can he build on that? I just don’t see the upside of keeping Eason on the bench.
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I thought Ramsey looked much better in the spring than I had seen. No, I’m not calling for Ramsey to be the starter based on 93kDay performance.
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Jim Donnan supposedly said he would have still been the coach at Georgia if he had taken the redshirt off David Greene in 2000 when the QB situation went sideways with QC.
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Zeier didn’t start till the season was half over.
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True but there were games earlier where Talley? would get the 1st series or 2 and Zeier would take over.
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Aaron Murray wasn’t too shabby and that was while many times getting his ass slammed all over the field.
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Aaron was also a redshirt freshman with more than a full year (including 2 spring practices) under his belt when he took his first snap.
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Not only did Lambert not look any different at G Day than he did in 2015, he didn’t look any different than he did in 2014, or 2013 at UVA. Lambert is who he is and I doubt he will improve to be any better than what we’ve seen thus far.
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That’s the part I didn’t get. I understand thinking that the game will slow down for a player in his second year. But for a player in his fifth? I doubt any difference between Lambert 2015 and Lambert 2016 will be his own maturity and skill development. Maybe Chaney can coach him up better than Schotty or the UVA staff. But it’s rare that a fourth year junior takes a big leap as a fifth year senior.
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Really?
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Fellas, there were reasons he was the best in the NCAA in one game and tossing less than 40% in another last year and those reasons seem to be known by the coaches (two sets of them at UGA thus far) who keep putting Lambert in the game. Some of you continue not to look at Spring Game film to see two dropped passes and a touchdown that was not called and that included a beautiful pass that only the receiver could catch at the flag. Put those into Lambert’s stats and you get a different picture of his talent in that game. Yall would rather bitch than look.
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I’ll just leave this thread to those who choose to knock Lambert at every turn.
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Without calling names we’ve certainly had much worse talent and much less effective QBs playing the position.
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We could use this to our advantage. I grew up a Saints fan, and I remember a game where the starting QB feigned a hand injury. They brought in the back up, I think it was a guy named Dave Wilson, who hadn’t played much, but had a strong arm. His first, and only, play of the game was a bomb for a touchdown.
You’re probably thinking this could only work once, but I’m thinking we could pull this off about 3 or 4 times vs. Tennessee and a bunch of Willie Martinez-coached DBs.
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Good thought but Gary Danielson would just text Sgt. Carter real quick during the game and tell him.
I don’t think being critical and even disappointed toward lambert is the same as being an ungrateful fan. It ain’t feelings ball. It’s cut throat high stakes business.
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Exactly. One can recognize Lambert’s deficiencies without defaming him as a person.
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How about as a QB football player that our coaches have agreed is the best we have to offer? The critiques of his playing ability here leaves that out of tune with our former QBs’ assessments of Lambert and puts you at odds with the coaches’ choice.
And if you haven’t figured it out yet, this is the biggest click bait being posted regularly here just to get the irrational dustups I’m reading.
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Being the best option doesn’t mean he’s a good option.
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That Saints game was against the Falcons. I remember that play, it was a genius call.
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Dammit ,Lambert didn’t throw for a touchdown on every play so clearly he is incompetent and there is no downside to starting a talented freshman except maybe ,injury,interceptions and just totally destroying his confidence. None of the coaches or ex-QB’s know what they are talkin about the anti-Lambert commentators are 1000% correct we need to ride him out of town on a rail. All sarcasm aside ….he ran the offense they told hi to run…….How much better is he than Joe Tereshiski III ?
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Exactly! If you’re not satisfied with UGA being 13th in the conference in third down conversion rate (there’s only 14 teams), then you’re unreasonable. What, you think UGA should be capable of being 10th? or 6? Inconceivable!!
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It takes a team, not an individual, to get 3rd downs. Why don’t you view the O-line in the same vein? Or the receivers? Or the play called by the coaches?
Nap, your reasoning is what is inconceivable.
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I know, right? These people who want to discuss quarterback play after Bluto’s post about quarterback play are just nuts. They should be discussing line play, or receiver play, or coaching, or anything else besides quarterback play. I hear ya.
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If that was Lambert first year starting I’d agree. But the game should’ve already slowed down for him by now.
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Whoever they pick I will support him and I hope other fans do too. No booing. Is Chip Towers not at the AJC anymore?
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Well-reported article. But man, wouldn’t you have liked to have heard Quincy’s take on it all? And while we’re strolling down memory lane, maybe Cory Phillips’, Joe Cox’s, and JTIII’s?
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James Jackson is on line one.
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How about John Lastinger, Todd Williams or Wayne Johnson?
I am surprised Fran Tarkenton wasn’t contacted.
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I think they tried Fran but he was on vacation. Good call on the rest, though.
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David Greene: “I think last year, it was a very vanilla offense, for the most part, at least that’s the way it felt.”
Lambert only fits in a “vanilla offense”. He’d be booted immediately at a school like aTm. He’s limited by his skill set. He can’t run, doesn’t have good pocket presence, and most vital – doesn’t have the arm to open up the field.
But he knows the playbook. And if a player has enough separation in his 20 yard throwing zone, he can deliver a pass close to the receiver.
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Well, the Senator got more viscera than usual with this click bait. How about we ask each former QB after each game?
Yall are beginning to sound like Trump refusing to apologize after being a complete ass about something like a player leading our team.
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They say when you have 2 QBs, you really don’t have any, but there have been successful 2 QB combos before (think Goff and Robinson). Maybe we could go to Lambert for consistency, and Eason for explosiveness. Then we’d have the best of both worlds, and as a bonus be breaking Eason in slowly for 2017.
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Seems to me like our QB philosophy should depend on the quality of our defense.
The primary disadvantage of playing an inexperienced talent versus a safe but limited veteran is that turnovers are relatively more costly than punting. However, if the other team is scoring, especially if they are scoring via big plays, then a turnover is not that different from a punt. If the defense is very bad, then even managing for field goals is not that valuable, because you’ll be outpaced.
In other words, shoot outs aren’t just about needing to score more points, but in a shoot out, the marginal downside of a mistake is actually less.
In that light, Carolina would seem to be the ideal opponent for Eason to make his mistakes against if we have to pass to any significant degree.
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